Bell Atlantic has become the latest Baby
Bell to jump into the Internet service provider arena with plans to offer
access to businesses next month and consumers starting in July.

The monthly cost of dedicated Internet access for businesses will range from
$200 for 56-kbps connections to $775 for 1.17-mbps lines. Regular dial-up
service for residential users will be rolled out in July at $17.95 a month for unlimited access or $4.95 per month for five hours and
$1.95 for each additional hour.

Users of dedicated and dial-up access will have to pay an additional fee to
long distance companies for "interexchange services," which will run business
users between $150 and $400 more per month and residential users about an additional $2 each month.

The Bell Atlantic service will initially be available in Washington, D.C.,
Baltimore,
and Roanoke, Virginia. It will then expand to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
Norfolk, Virginia, and cities in northern New Jersey.

Bell Atlantic's Baby Bell brethren, Pacific Bell and US West, have
already announced Internet access services, and AT&T and MCI are just now
entering
the market as well.

Like the big long distance companies--which offer special deals to their customers--regional Bell carriers will be able to leverage their vast
database of telephone users in
marketing Internet services, a formidable advantage not shared by smaller
ISPs such as UUNet and PSINet. But Bell Atlantic does not expect
to complete service rollouts in its coverage areas until November, a window that analysts say could leave plenty of opportunity for other ISPs.

"In the time between now and when they actually deploy this service, 50 percent of the people [in their coverage areas] will be on the
Internet already with AT&T, MCI, UUNet," said Daniel Briere, president of
telecommunications consultancy TeleChoice.

Bell Atlantic and the other Baby Bells also have to deal with these interexchange
fees, from which both the long distance carriers and Net access companies like Netcom are exempt.
For residential users, the interexchange fees will bring Bell Atlantic's
offering in line with prices for AT&T's WorldNet service, which charges
$19.95 per month for unlimited access.
said.

The interexchange fees are necessary because of a Federal
Communications Commission regulations that officially classify Internet
communications as long distance traffic. Under the Telecommunications Act, Bell Atlantic will eventually be freed to offer long distance service
and will then eliminate interexchange fees for Internet users, Bell
Atlantic spokeswoman Ginger Fisk said.

"Not being an interexchange carrier is a little bit of a blip," Fisk said.
"It's a little inconvenience we have to put up with until we're in the long
distance business. We're looking at 18 months to 2 years [before Bell
Atlantic offers long distance service]."

The Internet package will come with a Bell Atlantic-branded version of
either Netscape Communications'
Navigator or Microsoft Internet
Explorer browser, as well as access to a customized version of the Microsoft
Network online service.